To-day at 1:18 pm (CT) we all received a Presidential Alert, a wireless check, text message on our cellphones. It could have been either a thrill or terrifying depending upon our political affiliation. As an political independent, I sought more information about it and found and excellent article Trump Is Not Texting You in The Atlantic, which explains in detail about this mandated Wireless Emergency Alerts system.

The Washington Post reporter Annie Applebaum has a cover article A Warning From Europe: The Worst Is Yet to Come in the October 2018 issue of The Atlantic. This article is a case study from Poland and deals on “polarization, conspiracy theories, attacks on the free press and an obsession with loyalty. Recent events in the United States follow a pattern Europeans know all too well.”

Reid Forgrave, a writer based in Minnesota, has an very interesting article The Man Who Cracked the Lottery in The New York Times Magazine. This is a story about when the Iowa attorney general’s office began investigating an unclaimed lottery ticket worth millions, an incredible string of unlikely winners came to light – and a trail that pointed to an inside job.

The New York Times reports Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S. by the end of April 2018. It reports that major credit card processors don’t require signatures to complete transaction if the card transaction was made chip enabled card readers. For small retailers, it would still remain as optional.

The Follower Factory article in The New York Times is an interesting read story to understand how social media’ black market works with an subtitle “Everyone wants to be popular online. Some even pay for it.” ∞

The New York Times reports that Inside Amazon Go, a Store of the Future, an 1800 sq ft mini-market, is opening on Jan 22, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. Amazon was reported to be working this type of cashier free stores in 2016. If this technology is adopted by other major retailers then this will definitely disrupt job employment scenario.